Probably the best puppy training advice I’ve gotten has come from my good friend and agility mentor, Professor Rob. His cunning and grace have gotten him far in agility, and he is very smart about a lot of things. Every time I start to freak out about something weird and freaky that my somewhat weird and freaky puppy does, he just says, Don’t Freak Out.

That is the training philosophy I’m using as the foundation of my puppy training. Banksy is the puppy that she is and she will become the dog that she will become and I am trying my hardest to train her really good. So I just gotta keep moving on and don’t freak out.

She can do some weird ass shit. Sometimes Banksy is kind of a weirdo. She can be a little bit hard to train one day. Then super easy the next. Then impossible the next day. Then sort of medium. Then loony toons. Then the next day brilliant. Then the next day totally WTF BANKSY???

I’m just trying to ride it out and do the best I can. And not freak out.

And if she mentions to you that I am an evil witch, DO NOT BELIEVE HER BECAUSE I AM NOT.

I am not going to list all the things I’m having a hard time with here. If you have had a border collie, and one who was very wild and maybe a bit of a weirdo and kind of stressed out sometimes, then you might have a good idea. Maybe not. If you had told me before I got a puppy that things like leaves and dust and invisible spirits living in plastic owls were going to be training challenges, I would be all, Oh wait! I have trained a Gustavo!

But this is a whole other universe, of course, entirely.

There are a lot of things about her that are super awesome and help me not freak out when things go in a direction of which I am left in the dust, scratching my head, and watching a wet and skinny coyote high tailing it back into the pond.

Here’s a list of Banksy’s awesomeness. Banksy loves all people. She loves all kids. She loves to run up and meet new friends and have them give her lovies. She loves to meet little friendly dogs. She loves to meet friendly big dogs that aren’t pouncing on top of her. She loves my dogs. She loves my husband. She sleeps on top of my feet in our bed. She can do loose leash walking a lot of the time. She can walk off leash with us in the forest with beautiful recalls. She loves to swim. She thinks agility is rad and can do little sequences with tunnels and bumps and barrels. She is learning tight tight out of a straight tunnel. She can stay when I lead out. She doesn’t chase joggers. Sometimes she sticks her tongue out. She can nosetouch the target. She has a lot of funny tricks. She loves slamming down the teeter totter. She brings back the ball. She loves tugging. She flops upside down for tummy scritches and makes a polar bear face. Sometimes she likes to eat treats from my hand. She ciks and caps around stuff in the arena. She loves riding in the car. She runs as fast as the wind.

No. She can’t Eat Tug Come Stay everywhere and every time. Way far, far, galaxy far far away far, from that. A lifetime of far. But that’s what we’re working on. And I am not freaking out.